Nice! This has been hard-to-find for a few years now.

Features vocals by Kyle Vincent and it is awesome!

So, not the original group or recordings?

I believe Rick Joswick was the original lead singer.

This is being solicited as a new compilation of the original recordings. The cover photo and description would appear to confirm that, but if anyWAN has heard differently, please chime in.

Oops, looks like there were two lead vocalists in the original band - Mike Gibbons & Rick Joswick.

The version of this album that I bought on iTunes a few months ago (b/c the CD was crazy expensive) has this exact cover and nearly identical track list. This version has "Gimme Some Lovin'" at Track 7 instead of "Hello It's Me" and does not have tracks 11-12. I was looking for it after seeing it listed on Kyle Vincent's website.

This is the CD version of the compilation you downloaded. It was briefly in-print in 2015, on the "Airline Records" label, and features re-recordings:



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TBBAWS4/?tag=imwan-20

Hate to dash anyone’s hopes here, but I suspect this either features all re-recordings or, at best, only three originals (Billy Don’t Be a Hero, Who Do You Think You Are and Our Last Song Together). While the band did record several covers, the rest of these songs did not appear on any of the the three original albums. Interestingly, Todd Rundgren’s Hello It’s Me — the one that got dropped here — WAS included on the band’s “Farther On” LP in 1976. If you want only the originals, better stick with the 1996 (OOP and pricey) Best Of Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods on Varèse Sarabande.

As an aside, I agree that Kyle Vincent is great vocalist; his s/t album and its follow-up, Wow & Flutter, are outstanding. I probably wouldn’t buy this Faux Donaldson disc, but I’d give it a listen on a streaming service just to hear Vincent sing these songs.

I'm familiar with many of the songs on this compilation, but I know them as hits for other artists. "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" is the only hit song I associate with this group. I know that, in the 1970s, it was still common practice for singers and bands to cover other people's hits on their own albums, but did Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods have actual hits with any of the other songs on this collection?

Per the notes in the Varèse Sarabande CD, these are the band's charting singles:
Billy Don't Be A Hero #1
Who Do You Think You Are? #15
Special Someone #64
The Heartbreak Kid #39
Our Last Song Together #95

Billy Don't Be A Hero would certainly make a Top AM Hits of the 70s for me. I remember when it was once all over the radio when I was a young teen.

Thanks, David, for the chart information. I don't know any of those other songs. I also remember, John, when it was played all the time on AM radio, which my older sister had on all the time, when I was about 11 or 12. When I hear it, I can't help but think of other "story" songs from around that time in the early '70s, like "The Night Chicago Died."

It was the era of the 'song with a story' like The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia, very descriptive.

All three of those bring back fond memories for me.

Whatever the new compilation might turn out to be, the pre-order price has now dropped below $10:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PL9STVV/?tag=imwan-20